national characteristics, american

Examines the motives and behaviors which hold together communities and how individual behavior is often controlled to the extent that it benefits the group.

Senator Barack Obama addresses twenty-first century politics in the United States, commenting on economic insecurities of citizens, race, religion, terrorism, threat of a pandemic, and other related issues.

Explores the cultural history of the American middle-class family vacation from 1945 to 1973, discussing how post-war prosperity prompted the ritual of the family road trip, which remained popular for years until its decline in the early 1970s.

Explores the intellectual and cultural uses of folkness in the creation of the idea of an American nation and people, tracing the history of folklore and the related concept of folklife.

Presents photographs and essays that document the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, revisiting survivors and the relatives of people who lost loved ones, and including a photographic record of the recovery of the World Trade Center site, and an introduction by President George W. Bush.

Based partly on the author's observations of the American political and social conditions during a visit in 1831-1832.